SPORTS OF THE TIMES; Patriots' Romp Stirs Questions, and Not Just About Jets

By WILLIAM C. RHODEN

Published: December 7, 2010

CORRECTION APPENDED

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.

In the days leading to his team's showdown with New England, Jets Coach Rex Ryan went out of his way to praise Bill Belichick, the Patriots' dour coach.

Ryan praised Belichick as the best in the business. Belichick certainly played the role of the genius Monday night.

His Patriots turned what was supposed to have been the game of the year, between division rivals with 9-2 records, into a 45-3 mockery.

The Jets' vaunted defense could not stop Tom Brady and the Patriots' offense; the Jets' supposedly high-powered offense was smothered by a young Patriots defense that was supposed to be vulnerable.

The Patriots avenged an early-season loss to the Jets, took over first place in the A.F.C. East and set themselves up to secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

The Patriots accomplished two other things: they planted seeds of doubt in the minds of a Jets team that many picked to win the division and proved that everything Ryan said about Belichick was true.

You can argue that this is one of Belichick's finest coaching jobs in years; on the other hand, it's a typical Belichick job. He has replaced lost and missing pieces, reconfiguring the team to fit its personnel.

The Patriots raised eyebrows by trading Randy Moss and bringing back Deion Branch. They recast their offense from a vertical attack that threw downfield to a horizontal attack that uses two talented rookie tight ends.

When the Patriots lost the veteran Kevin Faulk to injury, Belichick plugged in the third-year back BenJarvus Green-Ellis.

So, what does all of this mean -- the adjustments, Monday night's massacre that sent Ryan and his bodacious Jets back home to lick their wounds? On a night when the Jets lost by 42 points, it seems futile to suggest that they may yet win the division and reach the Super Bowl. But this was one game, one night. The season series is tied with four weeks to play.

The meaning of Monday's game depends on your standard for successes. Success for the Jets this season means a trip to the Super Bowl; success for the Patriots under Belichick is more complicated, but at the very least it means championships.

The Patriots won three championships in four years, from 2001 to 2004, becoming the second team to accomplish that. But they have not won a title since. For Belichick, a coach many put in the same realm as Lombardi, Walsh and Landry, the quest of a fourth championship is a crucial one that could atone for the only glitch -- albeit a major one -- in his Patriots career.

Spygate.

If New England does not win another title under Belichick, critics can say that a shift took place three seasons ago.

After the season-opening game between the Jets and the Patriots in September 2007, Eric Mangini, the Jets' coach at the time, reported New England to the N.F.L. for videotaping the Jets' defensive signals. The Jets confiscated the tape and turned it over to the N.F.L.

The scandal, which came to be called Spygate, put New England and Belichick under a cloud, although by 2007 several teams had begun to suspect the Patriots were taping opponents.

New England lost some of its luster as a first-class organization. While no one doubts Belichick's coaching genius, he lost a measure of respect for violating the sanctity of sportsmanship and the integrity of competition.

Belichick also sent a troubling message to his prot?s.

One of them, Mangini, reacted by turning in his old boss. But another, Josh McDaniels, was caught in the ambition trap -- perhaps as Belichick was.

And on Monday, McDaniels was fired as the Denver Broncos' coach less than two weeks after the N.F.L. fined him $50,000 and the franchise another $50,000 when it learned the team's director of video operations had recorded six minutes of the San Francisco 49ers' walk-through the day before the teams met on Oct. 31 in London.

The employee was Steve Scarnecchia, identified by the N.F.L. as one of those who made improper videotapes while employed by the Patriots. McDaniels was a member of Belichick's staff during the Super Bowl years; so was Scarnecchia.

New England has not won a championship since the Jets turned in Belichick for cheating. Is this a coincidence? Or in a league in which winning and losing hang by such a slender thread, can the loss of a camera be the difference?

The unanswered question is what level of conceit or insecurity prompted Belichick to cheat. We may know that only if Belichick writes the ultimate autobiography. Meanwhile, we continue to refer to Belichick as a genius and one of the great coaches in N.F.L. history.

New England will not be defined by the spying fiasco. The Patriots don't need to win another championship to validate themselves, nor does Belichick. He has three Super Bowl rings with the Patriots. For Belichick, the fourth would be a charm.

PHOTO: Danny Woodhead, a former Jet, gaining ground after a second quarter catch. He led the Patriots in receiving yards with 104. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JIM ROGASH/GETTY IMAGES)

Correction: December 15, 2010, Wednesday

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: The Sports of The Times column on Dec. 7 , about the rivalry between the New York Jets and New England Patriots, misstated the number of Super Bowl championships that Bill Belichick, coach of the New England Patriots, has won. He has won five, not three. (Besides his three titles as Patriots coach, he won two as defensive coordinator of the Giants.)